New Lord Mayor of Plymouth named

Heavy-metal lover ready to shake-up tradition

Plymouth’s soon to be new Lord Mayor Kevin Sproston is all about shaking it up a bit.

The Motorhead fan says he wants to create his own stamp on the prestigious role and have some fun with it.

A former Royal Navy weapons engineer, the popular 42-year-old Labour councillor for Budshead was unanimously elected by councillors to be Lord Mayor despite only being a member of Plymouth City Council for two years.

He will take over from Conservative councillor Kathy Watkin (Plymstock Radford) in May.

He considers it a great honour and says he will use his position to recognise the work of those who are not in the spotlight.

Kent-born Cllr Sproston, a third generation serviceman who served in Iraq, fell in love with Plymouth when he was stationed there as a teenager and still considers it the best city in the world despite being well travelled.

He threw himself into community work after a training injury forced his retirement from the navy after 20 years and has won an Improving Lives award for his work with neurodiverse children and the LGTBQ+ community and as part of Keyham Neighbourhood Watch which he set up, a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the equivalent of an MBE for community clubs.

The group has been turning an abandoned building into a coffee shop with the aim of raising money and supporting other good causes, got hundreds of houses refitted with locks for free after the Keyham shootings and raised £500 a week to put together food parcels for families during covid.

After getting to the dizzy heights of coordinator for Neighbourhood Watch in the south west, Cllr Sproston turned his attention back to Plymouth and set up The Bridge, which supports foodbanks, schools and other organisations with wholesale food donated to the community and focuses on education, crisis and resilience. Among those who get assistance are Help the Homeless who feed over 100 people a night in the city. The Bridge is saving Plymouth thousands of pounds and one year into its existence Cllr Sproston said he was “very proud” of what it had achieved.

“I think community work is my big passion,” said the councillor who was instrumental in getting the Knife Angel in Plymouth, a national monument against violence made from thousands of knives which have been surrendered or used in crime, and the education programme that has come from it.

Finding his niche after the hammer blow of being discharged from the navy was not easy as it was lockdown and there was no proper resettlement.

“It felt like a real kick in the teeth because I gave 20 years. I went out on a medical because someone dropped me on an assault course and it messed my knee up.

“I just got a phone call and was told that was it, you are now a Mr. It was a bit of a slap, I was not expecting the red carpet and trumpets but it felt a little bit hard. For the first time since I was 16 I was without a job.

“The good thing for me was that the navy had let me do some community work before so I had built up a large social network  in Plymouth. After I left I got into it big time and the whole idea of becoming a councillor was to help bring about change.”

He said he had come to realise that life can “throw you all sorts of wobblies” and his way of dealing with it was to make light of some tough situations.

“I think that is the whole military humour but I think it’s the same with  Plymothians, they have a unique sense of humour-  they let the bad times roll and just get on with it.”

Cllr Sproston said he was excited about his year as mayor but people would see him pop up at unexpected events. “I am just as likely to be seen turning up to the 50th anniversary of someone selling burgers as the more grandiose events,” he said.

“I’m all about celebrating the little man, the unsung heroes of Plymouth. We have a great number of volunteers here in the city too, more than many other cities and I want to shine a light on them.”

And the councillor will be taking tips from talented influencers in the city to see how he can best promote everything that is going on..

“ If I can use this opportunity to highlight the work of smaller organisations especially in the arts, I will,” he said.

“People like Curly Gaz are great. I went on his recommendation to get barbecue and had the best barbecue I ever tasted.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to go around doing what he does because he is skinnier than me and clearly works out but I’m thinking about putting a Lord Mayor’s team together of community minded people and taking back the social media and doing it ourselves.

“I am looking at doing things a bit differently and having some fun with it. We also need more heavy metal gigs so I will be championing that.”

Cllr Sproston will officially take on his role in May at the Lord Mayor Choosing Ceremony.